Today marks the end of my second week here on the rocks! How time flies when your every moment is filled with wonder. Morning mist fills the air with mystery, the afternoon sun dances across wavetops into the corner of your eye, and the evening sky bursts with stars far from any city lights. The last few nights, we’ve even been lucky to catch some late-summer meteor showers. All around, wild creatures chatter away and go about their lives in ways I never imagined seeing in person. I can’t wait to see wonders what the next two weeks of life here reveal.

Wildlife

Facility notes
– Cleaned Panels
– Finished student house kitchen deep clean

Weather
Very foggy! Hard to see much, but the rumble of ship whistles throughout the day served as a ghostly reminder of the rest of the world just out of view. Westerlies from 5 to 26 knots, daytime temperatures between 12 and 16 degrees.

My partner came up to help this morning with the solar panels- the usual gorgeous morning view was unfortunately nowhere to be found!

Vessels
Ecotourism: 6
Private: 3

Wildlife
More and more are showing up to haul out every day. The outer edges of the rocks are all populated with sea lions now. They’re still concentrated on the Northeast corner, but every shoreline has a least one or two.

Facility notes
– Cleaned panels
– Ran desal pump
– Generator fuel check
– Started inventory of student house pantry
Unfortunately, it seems like a thriving community of pantry beetles of some sort also moved in over the summer months; going through the student house kitchen to make an inventory revealed a fair amount of inhabited dry foodstuffs. We cleared out anything left open with visible unwanted additional protein, and wiped inside the cabinets and drawers to discourage their continued residence.
Tomorrow I will finish the task with the arrival of some solid, watertight storage bins for future pantry staples.

Weather
Sunny. Strong West-North-Westerly winds from 21 to 36 knots all day. Temperatures between 12 and 15 degrees.

Vessels
Ecotourism:
Private:

Visitors
A wonderful delivery came in on the Pedder Explorer this afternoon! My partner has been dropped off to come visit for a few days. He doesn’t seem too eager to be outside with the birds so far- but he’ll be wielding his seagull broom like a pro in no time.
Laura and Sara from the Pearson Science Centre also came out for a brief tour of the student building, in preparation for the school term visiting program.

Wildlife
The lions have started moving in on the jetty already! It’s time to plug the electric fence back in. It took a moment to reconnect some of the wiring with a quick-fix move before the Pearson crew comes out to re-vamp the whole system for the upcoming season. I took Christine’s advice as a fellow small human being and used the wheelbarrow as a loud, barrier-providing discouragement aid for the ones who had already hauled out onto the jetty.

Facility notes
– Cleaned panels
– Cleaned windows
– Reconnected jetty fence

Weather
Sun and clouds. Strong West by-North-Westerly gusts ranging from 19 to 38 knots. Temperatures from 12 to 17 degrees.

Vessels
Ecotourism: 17
Private: 5

It finally happened, after a solid week’s streak of avoiding of solid streaks. Today’s strong wind and the decision to head out without a brimmed hat or broom ended in this unfortunate reminder to stay vigilant during gull nesting season! Lesson learned.

Needless to say, today was a bit more of an inside day after that.

Facility notes
– Cleaned panels
– Cleaned windows
– Topped up battery levels / Generator inspection
– Main house pantry clean / inventory

Weather
Windy! Mix of sun and clouds, winds West-by-Northerly from 13 to 35 knots. Temperatures 12 to 20 degrees.

Vessels
– ecotourism: 13
– private: 4

A rolling fog mixed with wildfire blanketed the rocks intermittently, bringing the horizon in and out of view all day.

Facility notes
– Cleaned panels
– Generator ran automatically from 5am to 11:30pm
– Ran desal pump (full tank now!)

Weather
Hazy, foggy and everything in between. Wildfire smoke has settled in, mixing with an intermittently heavy fog throughout the day. The extra precipitation was great this morning for cleaning panels.
A westerly wind blew from 6 to 18 knots, picking up to 25 in the evening. Temperatures from 10 to 13 degrees.

Vessels
ecotourism: 10
private: 3

As an Ecoguardian surrounded by the ebb and flow of shoreline life, while ocean winds burst with a fluid cast of seabirds- one spends their days saturated in sights of beauty. During nesting season, the rocks are also fairly saturated with everything passing through these birds. They’re leaving evidence of a lot of seafood, and I’ve been seeing them mostly regurgitating up small silver fish for their young. There was what looked to be a pile of regurgitated octopus arms on the rocks by the jetty when I went to collect the sea water data, but it had been reclaimed by the time I returned with the camera.

This 2019 post by previous Ecoguardians explains in more detail the variety of tidbits left behind by the gulls when they’re unable to find enough fish: Suspicious Seagull Suppers, A Busy Few Days

I’ve noticed a fair number of gulls have been eating something very red- much of the guano by the house (and on the windows) has been unusually vibrant today.

Facility Work
– Cleaned panels
– Cleaned windows
– Battery maintenance

Weather
Temperature 13 to 24 degrees. Winds from 0 to 17 knots.

Vessels
ecotourism: 11
private: 5

Three more Canada geese seen hanging around by the house today. The seagulls have not taken kindly to their presence; over the course of the day I noticed them slinking across the spaces between nesting sites, chased out by protective parents at every turn. Unfortunately for me, many of the spaces between nesting sites are also where I walk! A significant amount of goose droppings have been added to the list of things to avoid while getting around.

Our entangled sea lion is thankfully still here. He spent most of today lying on the end of the jetty.

Facility Work
– Cleaned solar panels
– Washed linens
– Finished AED setup in main house, washed door glass

Weather
Sunny. Very little wind; Westerlies shifting to South easterly from the afternoon, 3 to 12 knots. Temperatures from 11 to 19.

Vessels
ecotourism: 10
private: 5